The prominent senior rabbi of a Bronx synagogue who drew scrutiny for naked sauna chats with boys as young as 12 is stepping down.
The rabbi, Jonathan Rosenblatt, had fought hard to keep his job at Riverdale Jewish Center in the wake of an article in The New York Times last May describing the sauna sessions, and many congregants rallied to his defense.
But hundreds of other members quit in anger over Rabbi Rosenblatt’s conduct and the synagogue leadership’s tolerance of it and formed a breakaway congregation.
And Wednesday night, the synagogue’s president emailed members to say that the rabbi “intends to step aside from the Senior Rabbinate” of the Jewish center, a Modern Orthodox congregation in the affluent neighborhood of Riverdale.
